Plot-style of matplotlib

Question

I'd like to know why matplotlib outputs plots in different styles depending on which system I run the file. For example, I let the same code run twice, once on a Windows machine and once on Ubuntu system, and got the following two plots

The information in the plots is obviously the same, but is there a special command to let matplotlib know that I'd, for example, would like all my plots to be produced in the "Ubuntu style" (lower of the two) version?

Answer 1

The upper plot is produced with a version of matplotlib >= 2.0. The lower plot is produced with a version < 2.0. The style changes are documented in the Changes to the default style .

It's hardly possible to make a matplotlib version < 2.0 produce the exact output you'd get with matplotlib >= 2.0, although you might copy the style sheet from a newer version to the old one and set the parameters accordingly.

The inverse is however possible. To get the old (classic) style in a new version of matplotlib should be possible via

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
plt.style.use("classic")